Like a Plume of Smoke
by SailorAlkaline
Summary: Hadley was always happy until her best friend Tiara ran away. A lot of Uglies were disappearing, and rumors were that the Smoke was taking them. Hadley hated this Smoke-thing, and she wanted her revenge. She worried about Tiara, for she was very sickly. Hadley would do anything to save her friend, even if it meant the Smoke would fall at her feet.
1. Chapter 1

_"Revenge is like a plume of smoke. It seems tangible, but when you reach for it, you're grasping at nothing but air." - K. Lynn Smith_

"Nothing but air, huh?" I whisper.

I can't believe she's gone. They took her, and others. When is it going to stop? Why is everyone so afraid of becoming pretty? Being beautiful is the best part of our lives!

My room pings at me. _"You have a visitor, Hadley." _

"Thank you, let them in." I say. Most Uglies were mean to their rooms. I was always nice to it. After all, it never does anything to me but wake me up for breakfast and remind me when my classes are. It's like a parent, except nicer. Plus, it never makes fun of my red hair and buck teeth.

"Hey Rabbit." my friend Jaslene says to my back. I sigh. I hate when people call me that.

"Hi Bug-Eyes." Jaslene doesn't have doe eyes like Pretties do. She has black, bulgy eyes that look really scary at nighttime. I twist my interface ring to brighten the room up.

"Still scared of my eyes, I see." she says bitterly. I shake my head and open my morphos software. I stared at Tiara's Pretty face. She would have been beautiful. All of us, finally pretty!

Now it's just me and Jaslene. At the end of this week, I'd be moving to New Pretty Town, and in two more weeks, Jaslene would be joining me. Tiara would have completed the circle at the end of the month. We'd all be pretty in December. We all loved winter, and it was perfect for us to be beautiful snow angels, me with brown hair in loose waves, Jaslene with doe eyes and a short blonde bob and Tiara, no longer thin and tiny, a tall, healthy Pretty with straight, light brown hair. It would have been the time of our lives.

I close the morphos software and collapse onto my bed, curling up into a ball and sobbing. The Smoke had taken my best friend, and for all I know, she could be dying without her medication. She didn't take her meds with her, just left them in a pile on her bed. We're all devastated, but I haven't gone a day without crying. I trusted her so much, and I thought she trusted me! Why wouldn't she tell me she was unhappy? We could have found her a good doctor that maybe would have at least operated on her enough to fix her immune system. I just can't believe she's gone.

I feel Jaslene wrap her arms around me and kiss the back of my head. "I know it's hard, but we still have each other."

I hug my pillow and nod. "I'll always have you. Please don't leave me too." I whisper, squeezing my eyes shut.

"Why would I do that?" she asks me. I shrug and sigh. Why would she leave me?

The next day feels long and boring. I get stuck with cleaning duty and almost miss lunch. Meatloaf. I think I wouldn't mind missing meatloaf once in a while, but an Ugly's gotta eat.

I finally reach my room and lay on the bed.

_"Welcome back, Hadley." _the room says to me.

"Thank you." I mumble. I close my eyes and wrap myself up in my comforter. I know Jaslene's coming over, but I tried to sleep anyways. I know she'd just cuddle with me till I woke up. That's how it's always been with us.

These last few days, I needed Jaslene more than ever. Soon I'd be waiting another two weeks to see her again, and it would be hell. I've heard that some Pretties forget their friends because they're just so happy to finally be pretty. For me, that's a really scary thought! I don't want to forget Jaslene, I just... I love her too much to break that bond over being pretty.

_"You have a visitor, Hadley."_

"Let her in." I mumble, my eyes still closed. I hear the door open, and Jaslene's footsteps. The bed sinks under her weight, and her arms wrap around me.

"I'm gonna miss you a lot." she says softly.

"I'll miss you too. I hope we get to live in the same mansion."  
>"Me too."<p>

We laid there like that for hours. I don't sleep all night. When I look at my clock, it says 3:00 AM. It's Thursday. Saturday is my birthday. I turn around to look at Jaslene. She's sound asleep, the moonlight illuminating her light hair. I'll admit, I'm superficial, and I always thought she looked adorable...with her eyes closed. Just the way her eyes bulge always creeps me out.

I still love her though. Her looks were never a biggie in our relationship, because she's so sweet and she always makes me laugh.

I wonder...when we become pretty, will we still be the same on the inside?

We skip class Thursday and Friday and go boarding in the woods. For the most part, we hold hands, but we have to separate sometimes to avoid getting our arms ripped off. It's funny. In this past week, we've become closer than I ever was with Tiara.

We still have to find her so the doctors can fix her. I just hope we aren't too late.


	2. Chapter 2

The wait is excruciating. Jaslene is on my left, tightly squeezing my hand. My mother is on my right, and next to her is my father. Five other Uglies have been called before me and my leg is jiggling from nervousness. Not only that, but I'm soooo hungry, but I can't have food before surgery and blah blah blah. The only thing calming me down is Jaslene's presence. My parents are here for moral support, but Jaslene is there to make sure I don't pass out from fear.

"Hadley, it's your turn." a young nurse walks towards us and gives me a pretty smile. I hug Jaslene tightly and kiss her on the cheek.

"I'll see you soon." I whisper. Tears are forming in her eyes. I blink back my own tears and follow the nurse to the operating room where I'm handed an operating gown.

"They're gonna make me look like the morphos picture I sent them, right?" I ask her.

"Of course, dear. There's nothing to worry about. The only discomfort you feel is after you wake up, but it's only for two weeks."

Two. Weeks? Aah!

I'm being lifted up onto the operating table and a mask is being fitted over my face. Everyone is smiling at me, but I'm scared out of my mind. I knew that after surgery, my skin would be red and puffy but I didn't know it'd be for two weeks! That's fourteen whole days! I may as well just stay holed up in my room until I'm fully healed!

I hardly have time to think about anything else because soon, I'm asleep.

When I wake up, I feel groggy. I blink a few times, then shift on my bed.

Owwwwwwwwwww.

This. Skin. HURTS.

All I can feel is pain. Isn't there a pain medication I can take?

"Good evening, Hadley. Good to see you awake!" a nurse walks into my room.

"Why is everything so bogusly ouching?" I whine, squeezing my eyes shut at tears well up.

The nurse pats my arm and I whine again. "By next week, the pain should be gone, and a week after that, you'll be fully healed."

"Can I have pain pills?"

"Nope. Here are your clothes, and soon there'll be a warden car waiting for you. Hurry along now."  
>I pull my clothes on and wince every few seconds. This part of being pretty is so bogus.<p>

Soon, I'm being led out to a warden car and they help me into the passenger seat. I try to make as few facial expressions that I possibly can, which is hard because everything hurts!

"When I was your age, the healing process took a whole month." the warden whispers to me. I laugh, then whine, pressing my face against the window. The window's cool against my face, and the right half stops hurting for a while.

"Can Pretties request to be put into a certain mansion?" I ask, my speech garbled from me pressing my face on the window.

"I don't know. Why? Got a boyfriend you want to be close to?"

I shake my head. "It's one of my friends. We all have December birthdays, mine being the first week of the month. We call ourselves the Snow Angel Trio."

The warden smiles. "That's cute." She stops in front of a huge mansion. "Welcome to Pulcher Mansion. Your room is called Calypso and it's on the third floor." she hands me my bag and I limp out of the car and to the mansion.

"Hadley?" I look up at one of my old friends.

"Cliodna? Is that you?"

She has pin-straight brown hair, blue eyes and is wearing a black dress with flames going up the side.

"Did you just come from the hospital?" she asks me. I nod, then whine again.

"I know, it hurts real bad. How's Jaslene?"

"Just as bug-eyed as ever. I miss her already."

"What's your room name?"

I yawn, then grimace. "Ugh, Calypso." Groan.

Cliodna wraps my arm around her shoulders and ferries me to my room. Along the way, she chats on and on about her life in New Pretty Town since three months ago. Then, she mentions something that catches my attention.

The Crims. The tricky pretties of New Pretty Town. They, for some reason WANT to remember life as an Ugly. All I really want to remember is my friends.

"I think you should try and join. We were sometimes tricky as Uglies."  
>"I don't want to remember being an Ugly. I just want to be happy."<p>

I see the door with 'Calypso' on it and walk towards it. The door opens and I walk straight towards the bed.

_"Welcome home Hadley-wa. Please let me know how I can help you get settled in."_

I sigh a long sigh. "Please requisition some pain meds."

_"I am unauthorized to do so. Please get in contact with your surgeon and discuss the matter with them. Is there anything else I can help you with?"_

"Voice interface off!" I yell. Cliodna wrestles me out of my dorm uniform and tucks me in under my comforter. The bed is soft and so far is the only thing that hasn't hurt me all day.

"Why don't they give us medication if we decide not to stay at the hospital? Didn't Rusties used to get to take pain medication home after surgery?"

"Yeah, but some Rusties got addicted to them. Some died from it. It's bogus, but it's for our saftey, you know?"

"Oh." I whisper. If Rusties went through this much pain or worse after surgery, I can understand the addiction. But the whole "dying" thing is enough to make me want to forget about wanting the meds in the first place.

I wonder if Tiara went through this much pain. Maybe that was why she ran away. Maybe she was scared of going through more pain for a new body.

"Tiara ran away. To the Smoke." I whisper.

"What?"

I sit up slightly. "Tiara ran away to the Smoke. Almost three weeks ago." I say again.

Cliodna looks at me, but I can't read her expressions. It's like...fear. And pain. Sadness.

"It took her. _They_ took her. I...have to go." She backs out of the doorway and I try to run after her, but it hurts too much.

I'd never seen so many emotions flow through her at once, but given the circumstances, I understood it. Still, I had to go after Cliodna. I pull my legs out to the edge of the bed and stumble to the door. I see her waiting for the elevator, her back is turned to me. She's saying something into her interface ring but I can barely hear her. I take a deep breath and run a few feet forward. The elevator opens, but she ignores it. She's still talking to her ring.

"-no, Shay! You don't get it. My friend Tiara was going to be sixteen this month. If she ran away a few weeks ago, it means that there is hope for us. Shay...the Smoke _lives_."

I almost fall to my knees. Cliodna is working with supporters of the Smoke? The people who convince Uglies that living like Rusties is okay?!

I groan. I feel so _sick._ This is sick. I run to my room again, reduced to a limp by the time I reach the door to my bathroom. I lean over the toilet and throw up. The taste of bile lingers on my tongue and I heave again. Nothing comes up.

"Resume voice interface. Lock doors to all outsiders. Request for stomach upset medicine." I know that medicine isn't going to help me, but it makes sense to the room since I've just thrown up. I walk to the sink and rinse my mouth out, tears streaming down my face. I had to get into the Crims so I could travel to the Smoke and save Tiara. Cliodna be damned!

I look at my face in the mirror. Even though I'm crying, my eyes aren't red, nor is my nose. Aside from the facial redness and swelling, my face looked really pretty, and so did my luscious hair. I spit into the sink and force a smile.

You gotta fake it till you make it, right?

I know Jaslene will help me. I really can't wait until she gets the operation. I'll be fully healed by the time she becomes Pretty, but it doesn't matter. With me by her side, she'll heal up just fine.

I couldn't wait to hold her again.


	3. Chapter 3

Things feel...almost normal.

Jaslene is pretty now and we're both fully healed up. Like her morphos photo, she has beautiful brown doe eyes and a short blonde bob. She's curvy and everything looks good on her.

Usually we crash in my room, but tonight we're in her room. Usually I fall asleep first but she's knocked out and I'm the one with my arms around her. She's even more beautiful in the light of the big, looming full moon.

Of course, when I told her everything I knew about the Smoke from Cliodna, she wanted revenge for them taking Tiara. Our plan was to work our way into the Crims and when they decided to run away, go with them, while spying for the city. We had to save Tiara.

How we'd spy for the city, we didn't know. The city listens into everyone's conversations, so we hope they'll take notice of us.

"Do you think if we wore gloves, it would muffle the sound too much?" I ask Jaslene, while I munch on shrimp and cocktail sauce.

"It might. If we use gloves to cover our interface rings, we'd have to keep our hands close to our faces, and the material of the gloves would have to be thin, but not suspiciously thin."

I ponder on that for a while. What would be the thinnest material we could use for gloves?

"Calypso, make me two thin pairs of white silk gloves." I call to the hole in the wall. It spits out two pairs of gloves, which we both put on. Jaslene walks out to my door, and I walk into my bathroom.

"Ping Jaslene." I say.

"Well, you're only kind of muffled. Every time you move your hands, I hear the glove scraping against your ring."

"How bad is it?" I ask.

"It's not bad, but it's there."

I turn off the ping and let her back in. "How do you think we should go about the whole 'keeping our hands close to our faces' thing?" she asks.

I shrug. "Constantly scratching or tapping our chins?"

"Well…it could work."

The room pings that another pretty is outside. "For whom does this bell toll?"

"It's Fausto. Shay says to hurry up so we can get to the rink!"

I roll my eyes and pick up my flask and orange juice. "Let's do this thing."

Jaslene puts on her gloves and picks up her drinks, and we head out.

* * *

><p>"Ugh…just look at everyone <em>fawning<em> all over them."

"The king and queen of the Crims."

I purse my lips and roll my eyes for the millionth time. For someone who's supposedly best friends with Tally, Shay sure complains about her a lot.

"Remember when there were only six of us, Squint-la? Now we're almost worse than the Swarm." Ho whines.

"Well, that was a long time ago, Ho. And a lot has happened since then." Shay sighs.

Jaslene lets out a long, loud yawn.

"What she said." I smirk.

Zane skates past us, smiling. "Everyone good here?"

"Never bubblier, oh fearless leader!" Shay calls back to him.

My bubbly was starting to fade. Funny thing was, I got it from getting scratched by one of Jaslene's nails. I had a long red line running down my arm, and it'd cleared the fog for a little while. Now, the pain was gone, and everything was starting to get fuzzy.

I hear the fireworks start up, and after a while Tally calls out for us to pour out our flasks. I open mine, take a quick swig of vodka for bravery, and tip it out onto the ice.

We wait a few moments, then Zane comes rushing past to the middle of the rink.

"_WATCH OUT!__"_ he shouts, leaping up into the air and coming down hard onto the ice. I swallow hard, as I see the cracks coming closer to us.

"I know, Hadley-wa." Jaslene whispers softly, taking my hand.

Then, the world fell from underneath us.

* * *

><p><em>"<em>_I don__'__t want this!__" __Tiara shouted, her face red with anger, her hair covering her wild eyes and sunken in cheeks._

_"__Tiara, you have to! The doctors can make you better, and you__'__ll look amazing!__" __Jaslene tried to reason with her._

_"__I don__'__t want it! I want to be myself! I don__'__t want a fake face! I don__'__t want to do nothing but drink and party! I want to be real!__"_

_"__God, Tiara. Grow up. This is a gift we all get to have, but you want to throw it away for camping?__" __I scoffed. Trying to convince Tiara to stop complaining about the surgery was like trying to convince a littlie to eat their vegetables._

_"__It__'__s not camping! It__'__s real. They__'__re real! They stay natural their whole lives. That makes them beautiful.__"_

_"__No, that makes them ugly. Do you want to be ugly and sick for the rest of your life, or do you want to be pretty and healthy?__"_

_"__I want to be real!__" __she screamed for what seemed like the millionth time._

_"__Fine. What do I care?__"__I said, walking out of the room. __"__If you want to be sick and friendless, don__'__t come crying back to me when I__'__m pretty and having the time of my life!__"_

_I never thought she__'__d actually leave. I only said that because I was angry. I didn__'__t think she__'__d run away that night__…_

* * *

><p>"Hadley-wa?"<p>

I look to my left. Jaslene's hair is all over her face, and she has a cut on her forehead.

"You got hurt!" I say, ripping part of my scarf and pressing it to the cut.

"Yeah. A piece of ice clocked me on the head. Totally bogus."

The rest of the Crims shout with glee and excitement. Shay's off to the side, glaring at Tally, who's chatting with Peris and completely oblivious.

Cliodna comes running up to us, her eyes shining with excitement. "That was so bubbly! Oh my gosh, Jaslene!"

"I'm fine. I just need some MedSpray and a couple cookies and I'll be fine."

"Yeah, let's head back to the mansion really quick. The afterparty isn't for another few hours." I say, helping her up.

When we walk in, I tell the room to bring cookies, muffins and coffee and search my room for the stolen first-aid kit I had. Now that Jaslene and I had gotten back into hoverboarding, we were constantly getting hurt from pushing ourselves too hard. I'd taken so many ice baths and wipeouts at the rapids that it was almost like I couldn't feel pain anymore. Ugly Jaslene would have been crying and whining about the cut on her head, but Bubbly Jaslene took it in stride. I loved that.

"Found it!" I shout, walking over to Jaslene and spraying her head. The blood coagulates, then falls away into dust, and I spray the cut with fake skin.

"All better." She perks up. The room pings that the food tray has arrived, and we dig in.

"So, what's your plan to get Cliodna to help us get to the Smoke?" Jaslene says through a mouthful of double chocolate cookie.

I sip my coffee. "Well, I'm going to tell her that we've thought about it a lot, and that maybe Tiara had a point, that maybe being pretty isn't everything. That the most fun we have is hoverboarding and trying to be bubbly."

"Okay, the hoverboarding part is totally true, but being pretty is awesome! We can do whatever we want!"

"Of course, but god…when we fell through the ice, I remembered the night she ran away. What I'd said to her, and I…"

I choked off. I was so cruel to her. I owed it to Tiara to bring her back to where she could be safe. She was in awful shape when she ran away. What if she was dying?

"We'll find her. I know we will." Jaslene hugged me tightly.

We have to find her soon.


	4. Chapter 4

I stare down at my hands, waiting with baited breath as the Crims looked over me. Jaslene and I had come up with an over-dramatized sob story version of what happened with Tiara, and I'd just finished telling them about it. Zane and Tally looked at each other, then nodded.

"So, you want to escape the city, not to bring Tiara back here, but just to see if she's okay?"

I nod. "She'd stopped taking her medication shortly before she left. She was getting weaker every day afterwards. Part of me can't fathom her surviving the trip, but part of me still has hope."

Tally takes Zane's hand. "Even if they don't want to stay, the fact that they're willing to take the trip to see their friend is really respectable."

"Yeah, but..." He starts whispering to Tally. I look up at them with a pleading look, practically sticking my lower lip out in a pretty pout.

"Please." I beg. "I can live with her wanting to stay in the Smoke, if she survived the trip. I just want to see for myself that she's in good health.

Tally sighs. "We need to think about it, okay? People don't usually run away just to see their friends."

I nod. "I understand."

* * *

><p>Shay is much more aggressive in her fight to leave the city.<p>

She, and a few other former Crims have started cutting themselves, just to feel something other than fogginess. At first, I wasn't going to do it, but when I think back to how bubbly Jaslene had been after she got hit in the head by the ice, how her accidentally scratching my arm had split the fog in two, I figures it's a better plan than waiting for Tally to make up her damned mind.

We spent the next few nights stealing survival gear. Packets of self heating meals, water purifiers, sleeping bags, firestarters. Shay actually made us all uniforms.

Jaslene and I were Cutters now, and we didn't even have to get into the Crims to do it. Well...we did have to stalk Shay for a little bit, but as soon as she heard "want to leave the city" she inducted us.

* * *

><p>Well, it seems Special Circumstances <em>IS<em> real after all.

Jaslene and I barely avoided getting captured. We ran as soon as we saw them approaching, last minute cowardice had bought us time. With the directions Shay had given us, we caught up with Tally's group, but apparently, Tally had gotten lost.

Now we're sitting around a small fire, eating SpagBol and telling stories. I zoned out a while ago, concentrating on eating my dinner. When the Crims look to me, I shake my head no.

"I don't have any fun stories to tell." I say simply.

Jaslene kicks me. "That is such a lie! Don't you remember when we were fourteen and we snuck into New Pretty Town-"

"Oh my god Jaslene, no!" I yell.

"-And we ran into that pretty boy named Alexandros and you were so smitten by him-"

"I said NO!" I lunged at Jaslene but she scurried behind Zane.

"She was so smitten that she proposed to him and he said maybe in a few years!" Jaslene is cackling now. My face is burning in embarrassment and anger. I throw aside my water purifier and stomp off into the woods. Jaslene calls after me, but I ignore her, hot tears threatening to spill out onto my burning cheeks. Why did she have to mention that stupid story? It's bad enough that we never pulled tricks as uglies, now the Crims are going to think we're even lamer than before.

Tally made it to the Smoke by herself as an ugly. Shay is the Smoke's number one fangirl. Zane's been the founder of the Crims since he was ugly. All me and Jaslene ever did was peek at the pretties in New Pretty Town, Rabbit and Bug-Eyes hiding in the shadows.

My golden brown hair falls over my shoulders, reminding me of the life I'm leaving behind. Even if we make it to the Smoke, even if Tiara is alive and doing well, is going back to the city really worth it? I've done absolutely nothing meaningful in my life. Maybe the Smoke is my chance to be someone important, to show the city who's boss!

Or maybe I'll make Special Circumstances notice me by making the Smoke fall at my feet.


	5. Chapter 5

I expected the Smokies to be further out into the woods, not in an observatory several miles outside of the Ruins.

Okay, it's a little further than several miles, but it only took a couple hours to get there by hoverboard. According to the mysterious David, the old Smoke was much further out, four days worth of boarding to be exact. I don't know how the city took several decades of searching to find it, but if it were this close now, surely they could find it again.

My thoughts flashed back to Shay and the Cutters. I remember Shay mentioning some doctor lady offering her a job as a special. Was that her final fate? She and the rest of the Cutters had been taken back to the city to become Specials?

Jaslene's been aching for a bath since we arrived. It hasn't even been that long since we left the city, only a couple of days. She dragged her with me, of course. I kinda hate the whole 'secret lovers' thing, but she's not keen on revealing our relationship to strangers. I don't know why. It's not like back in the Rusty days where people who liked the same gender were persecuted or murdered.

The water is absolute hell at first, but once the feeling of bubbles rushes through me, the world became clear. Looking into the face of my lovely girlfriend, her perfection magnified by at least five-thousand, her blonde hair framing her face perfectly, even when it was wet, her brown eyes shining with excitement, every one of her perfect teeth gleaming brightly in a tricky grin, I felt absolutely clear.

At the same time, we come to a realization.

"We forgot about Tiara!" we shout simultaneously. We crack up and swim to back to where we left our clothes, getting dressed and shivering with cold and excitement. Unlike when the ice broke, I didn't get a rush of memories from ugly times, cutting had solved that issue. Besides, I didn't want to relive the night Tiara ran away. It hurt too much.

"So, it's true. You really did run away." a raspy voice says behind me.

I turn towards the voice, and gasp. There stands Tiara, being supported by David. Her legs are in big, bulky braces, and she's leaning on a pair of crutches. Her hair has been braided into a bun, her blue eyes sunken in and her cheeks more prominent than ever. She's even more frail than when she left the city.

* * *

><p>"I'm going back with you tonight." Tiara tells me as she snuggles into my shoulder, wrapping her blanket tighter around her.<p>

"How do you know if we're going back tonight?" I ask.

"Or at all?" Jaslene calls from the other side of the room.

"Zane said that you and Jas came to see if I'd survived the trip. I spent all this time thinking you didn't care anymore, only to find out that you never stopped caring."

I hug her closer. "Of course we still care. You're our _friend_, Tiara. I know I said some horrible things to you, but I was being stupid and angry. I just wanted you to be safe, and clearly you're still sick. For the longest time, we were scared that you'd died on the way here."

Tiara nods, scooting closer to me as Jaslene climbs in the bed with us, her added warmth quelling Tiara's shivering. "Maddy doesn't know exactly what's wrong with me, and she says the only thing that can cure me is that I go back to the city to get the surge. I tried to go back earlier when she first said she couldn't cure me, but they kept me here all these months. I hate it here."

I pat her head. "Don't worry about that now. You made the trip here, and that's what counts. That makes you special."

Tiara smiles, then closes her eyes as she slips into sleep. Jaslene and I share a look, then creep to the window of the observatory. The afternoon had just begun its transition into evening, but Tiara would have no trouble sleeping. She was constantly exhausted.

"Who's going, me or you?" she asks.

"Me."

She kisses me, sighing softly. "Be careful, okay? I love you."

"I love you too."

Right then and there, someone lets out a loud shriek. Jaslene runs off to see what's happening.

* * *

><p>"Hadley?"<p>

The Specials all surround me. I have my hands in the air, letting them know I won't fight.

"Hiya, Shay." I said. Just as I thought, they'd all been turned. Shay's eyes were dull and predatory, a deep violet color. Her face was sharp and covered with spinning webs of tattoos. Her bare arms were covered in scars, as the rest of the Cutters. "You'll find what you're looking for at a mountain past the Ruins. They're in an observatory, and they've got city tech with them. Jaslene told me they found a tracker, and when I left, they were still trying to find who it's coming from."

"Pity. I thought I had that hidden better." A tall woman steps into the circle, the epitome of a commander, her very stride screams _obey me, _I should be scared out of my damn mind. Instead I feel nothing but unadultured admiration.

"You're beautiful." the words leave my mouth before I've realized it, and I step closer, feeling intoxicated by her.

"Cutters, get to that observatory and capture a many of them as possible. I want Maddy and David alive and captured!" She examines me as Shay and the other rush into the cold evening air, running her unnaturally warm fingers up and down my cutting scars. "How did you escape us?"

I look down in embarrassment. "Last minute cowardice that I almost regret."

"Almost?" the woman looks at me, amusement dancing in her dull, steel grey eyes.

"The reason I left the city was to find my friend Tiara. She was very weak when she left the city, still is to this day. It blows my mind that she was even able to survive this long, especially since the amazing Maddy couldn't figure out how to cure her illness, but could very well tear apart our city with her pills."

"Interesting."

"Before you decide to get all rough and tough with her, she's agreed to come back to the city willingly with me and my gir- our friend Jaslene." I glance at the far away figures. Even on their pimped-out boards, would they get there in time?

"Well, we should go collect her, don't you think?"

I nod, following her to the waiting hovercar.

"Hey, what's your name? I think Shay mentioned you a couple of times before we left, but I don't remember what she called you."

The woman smiles at me, revealing a row of sharp white teeth. "Dr. Cable will do."


End file.
